Are y’all sick of me posting about robins yet?
This is our third set of robins this year! Our first set fledged the *minute* we returned from Memorial Day weekend meaning we got pics of the juveniles. A couple weekends ago robins were building a second nest in a different location and I thought I saw yet another pair starting a nest in a *third* location.
I watched as the second robin sat on her eggs. At one point I guessed correctly that they had hatched and they are now big enough I can see them poking their heads up from my vantage point across the yard.
The third nest is “around the corner” and I didn’t notice it was progressing and then kind of forgot about it. Yesterday the GG was home from his Geology Tour and as he was about to get the grill ready he noticed the third nest directly above it. And they were hatching! One egg left to go and we can’t tell how many hatchlings. And yes he moved the grill.
We haven’t had robins in years. The GG made a prodject to make the holes smaller on all the birdhouses to keep out the “junk birds” (“house wrens” or “house sparrows” or whatever). I was annoyed at first but apparently when they use the birdhouses, the robins don’t nest near them. Too close for comfort. Robins have “open” nests BTW, they don’t (that I know of) use birdhouses. We also had a set of chickadees in one of our houses. They are small enough to get in the diminished holes and do not qualify as “junk birds”.
And yes, he went off on a Geology Tour. I am a bit reluctant about him traveling around but he was either at the moomincabin or in the Lyme Lounge out in the woods and the few trips he made INTO stores, he was masked (or so he said). The yooperland is not a COVID hot spot (KNOCK ON WOOD!) and we needed a little break from each other, as we do 🐽🐽🐽
June 23rd, 2020 at 6:42 am
I watched a Carolina wren walk under the door into our screened back porch. I got a picture of it, then opened the door wide, and went back into the kitchen. It presumably could have gone out the way it came in, but they seem to get flustered. (Especially when a big galoot comes out.) The screen door appears to be warped and hanging on its hinges catty-wampus, so there’s a large gap at the bottom near the hinge, and another at the top near the handle side.
I suspect the “junk birds” were house sparrows, as wrens are smaller. We once watched a wren building a nest in the oblong opening on a propane tank cover. Lining up the twigs to go in the long way of the opening took a few tries.
June 23rd, 2020 at 12:35 pm
I don’t know if it’s a sign of “old age” but I’m really into birds these days. Perhaps because I don’t have much to do? Anyway, I love bird stories and photos!